Head of Federal Grants Support

Our Values

Rural America is a place of untapped potential. As an organization, we believe it takes a culture of collaboration — one built upon integrity, respect, and trust — to achieve equity and help rural people and places take on meaningful roles in the 21st-century tech economy.

About Us

Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI) is a social impact nonprofit consulting firm with a multi-disciplinary team of strategists, advocates, and capacity builders.

Our capabilities reflect the depth and breadth of our commitment to serve rural America, and the local leaders there working to advance tech-enabled economic development. Our work provides critical support to secure funding, develop infrastructure, and implement the programs needed to unlock the potential of America’s small towns and cities.

Rural America is home to 12% of the U.S. workforce, but just 5% of the tech workforce. In the age of innovation, this disparity has led to an unprecedented economic divide in our nation. We work with rural communities across the country as they build tech economies that support scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation. From assessments and strategic planning to securing funding and launching accelerators, our team supports communities through the entirety of their tech-based economic development journey.

RISI and its collaborating organization, the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), are headquartered in a historic general store building in the village of Hartland, Vermont, part of New England’s Upper Valley and greater Dartmouth College region.

Opportunity

There is an unprecedented amount of federal funding available for economic development over the next three years. This funding provides a unique opportunity to close the economic and social gap between rural and urban places for the long term. However, a decades-long disinvestment in rural America driven by automation and the decline in home-grown businesses has limited the capacity of rural communities to apply for and manage federal grants. Over the past six years, CORI and RISI have demonstrated an ability to change this story, and we plan to build on our success by helping rural communities access more of these game-changing resources for initiatives ranging from broadband infrastructure to tech talent development to programming for startups.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Expected to assemble and supervise a team of federal grant specialists or contractors depending on the federal grant strategy and availability of resources
• Collaborate across project teams at CORI and RISI to align technical assistance with grant-writing and federal funding strategy

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute on a strategy for accessing federal funds to accelerate tech-based economic development for rural communities
  • Serve as a thought leader on how to make federal funding processes more accessible to rural applicants and collaborate with the policy team to recommend adjustments to policy makers
  • Deepen relationships with federal agencies and program officers at the national and regional levels
  • Elevate the reputations of CORI and RISI as trusted and successful facilitators of federal grant awards to rural communities
  • Create shared repository of best practices, templates, and frameworks for efficiently engaging with federal funding opportunities
  • Connect more rural communities to the right funding opportunities by leveraging expertise of federal agencies and funding opportunities by understanding the needs of rural communities
• Provide federal grant application support to rural communities
  • Build systems to manage grant-writing processes and coordinating applications for multiple communities using a cohort model.
  • Develop tools to match communities with the funding opportunities that best meet their needs and capabilities
  • Provide intensive technical assistance to communities as they design projects and write applications for federal funding opportunities
    • Present trainings on key aspects of the funding process
    • Review draft applications and provide proactive feedback
    • Answer questions and provide guidance throughout the funding cycle
    • Coordinate application support from other teams and subject matter experts within RISI as needed
  • Design systems and processes to manage applications from a cohort of communities for any given funding opportunity as well as supervise multiple applicant cohorts per year across various funding opportunities
• Build general capacity for federal grant seeking in rural communities
  • Provide coaching and consulting to rural communities related to federal funding opportunities and grant applications on an ongoing basis
  • Convene working groups of rural communities related to federal funding
• Support internal grant seeking in cooperation with other teams at RISI and CORI
  • Lead internal federal grant application process, including identifying funding opportunities to pursue and translating projects designed by program teams into successful applications
  • Coordinate with internal stakeholders across project teams as well as the Development team

• Lead execution of federal grant support team in collaboration with the Director of Impact Consulting
  • Set and track annual objectives for the federal grant support team
  • Hire, train, mentor, and supervise team members
  • Develop and execute on team operating budgets and staffing plans
  • Support a team culture of diversity, equity and inclusion

• Perform other duties as assigned

Requirements

Required Skills/Attributes:

• Extensive knowledge of the federal funding landscape at a national and regional level, including funding priorities, application specifics and program life cycles for multiple opportunities and agencies, such as EDA, USDA, NTIA and NSF
• Ability to learn about and build relationships with new agencies and opportunities
• Strong writing skills and ability to develop full sets of client-ready materials from start to finish
• Ability to create systems and templates for organizing and prioritizing multiple projects and accelerating the grant application and compliance processes for rural organizations
• Ability to develop, track and manage against team and project budgets
• Ability to supervise team of staff or contractors - delivering feedback, creating a positive work environment, and mentoring individuals
• Exceptional verbal communication skills, including active listening, public speaking, coaching and providing feedback
• Facilitation skills to help build the capacity, skills and assets of rural organizations to apply for multiple federal grants
• Demonstrated ability to interact well and manage relationships with a diverse range of people, experiences, and constituencies
• Demonstrated ability to become trusted partner for clients in rural communities
• Committed to the belief that rural America provides real economic opportunity and that sustainable, future-focused development is necessary to bridging geographic and economic divides facing our country

Education and Experience:

• 5+ years of relevant experience within federal grant support or consulting, preferably with a focus on multiple federal agencies or funding opportunities
• Experience facilitating the grant application process for a wide variety of projects or funding opportunities
• Relationships with key individuals at federal funding agencies or related organizations
• Strong computer skills, including use of Google Suite, web-based collaboration and project management tools, and virtual presentation platforms

Physical Requirements:

Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer. Travel via car and/or airplane

Location:

This is a remote position and will be part of a distributed team. However, periodic travel will be required for strategic planning and alignment with teams, including program-related travel to various communities and travel to RISI’s headquarters in Hartland, VT.

Benefits

• Personal and professional development opportunities
• Health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurance
• 15 days PTO (accrued) plus 8 floating holidays (pro-rated based on start date)
• Employer matched 401k after 90 days
• The salary for this position is $100-110K depending on experience

Not considering any candidate that reside in California

Must be authorized to work in the US - no sponsorship offered at this time